WORTH THE UPGRADE? DDR3 Vengeance 1600mhz to Vengeance Pro 2400mhz

[pharmit_singh]

Hi, so I decided to sell my DDR3 Vengeance 1600mhz 4x4 (16gb) and get a Vengeance Pro 2400mhz 2x8 (16gb) is because to have air cooler clearance (Dark Rock 3).

There's already a buyer that wants to buy my 4x4 DDR3 Vengeance for the same price that a seller is selling his Vengeance Pro. So there is no loss. Is it a good decision? And I'm a gamer & I render videos. Please let me know thanks.

Here's my specs:
OS : Windows 7 Ultimate x64
CPU: i7 4790K 4.0GHz
COOLER: Cooler Master V8 GTS
SSD: Intel SSD 730 Series
HDD: 2x WD Black 6TB & WD Green 1TB
MB : Asus Maximus Formula VII
GPU: ASUS ROG Matrix GTX 780 Ti 3GD5
RAM: Corsair Vengeance 4X4 DDR3 1600MHz (16gb)
PSU: Corsair HX1000

 

[Emeryy]

i don’t see why there would be any downside if it’s the exact same price

 

[jr9]

I would do it if you are having issues with your RAM slots being blocked. You are not guaranteed to get 2400MHz speed though, your motherboard only supports 1600MHz max without overclocking. So you have to use XMP overclocking to get to 2400MHz which isn't guaranteed to work but I'd give it a shot. Worst case scenario you have to do a CMOS reset. Still I would go for it but you may end up stuck below 2400MHz if you aren't spending too much. The performance difference also won't really blow you away but it's more about getting away from the 4x4GB configuration.

 

[pharmit_singh]

I would do it if you are having issues with your RAM slots being blocked. You are not guaranteed to get 2400MHz speed though, your motherboard only supports 1600MHz max without overclocking. So you have to use XMP overclocking to get to 2400MHz which isn't guaranteed to work but I'd give it a shot. Worst case scenario you have to do a CMOS reset. Still I would go for it but you may end up stuck below 2400MHz if you aren't spending too much. The performance difference also won't really blow you away but it's more about getting away from the 4x4GB configuration.

If it's 1600mhz then it's better than the 2400mhz because of the latency right? From what I've researched 1600mhz is stable. Should I get the Vengeance Pro 2x8 and sell my 4x4? I could overclock later right and just use the 1600mhz first. I'm not good with these kind of stuff so I would appreciate if you could help me. Thank you.

 

[pharmit_singh]

And also that 2x8 gives less stress to the memory controller rather than 4x4.

 

[jr9]

I only recommend a 4x4 configuration on quad-channel memory systems personally, especially with modern coolers blocking RAM slots at times. For the vast majority of people, dual channel is ideal. 4x4 also costs more so you may be able to sell that 4x4 and possibly make a profit getting a 2x8GB.

Don't worry about stressing the memory controller, it's built into the CPU these days and Intel ones are strong. You aren't going to break it. Mixing and matching RAM does stress a the controller however.

2400MHz is better than 1600MHz. If I was building a Ryzen system, then I'd want to aim for 3000MHz (O.C) instead of 2400MHz and the PC would work faster. Don't worry about latency like CAS latency when picking RAM, the frequency/speed is the more important factor.

Here is a good post that contains the long computer engineering answer on latency vs clock speed if you feel like reading: http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-1922024/ram-latency-clock-speed.html

As long as you aren't losing/spending money, I would sell and get a 2x8GB kit. If you can't OC to 2400MHz perhaps you can get to 2133MHz or just go down to 1600MHz worst case. At the very least you won't have issues with the dark rock cooler blocking your RAM slots. I don't think you will see big performance gains though, the upgrade would mainly be about convenience.

 

[pharmit_singh]

I only recommend a 4x4 configuration on quad-channel memory systems personally, especially with modern coolers blocking RAM slots at times. For the vast majority of people, dual channel is ideal. 4x4 also costs more so you may be able to sell that 4x4 and possibly make a profit getting a 2x8GB.

Don't worry about stressing the memory controller, it's built into the CPU these days and Intel ones are strong. You aren't going to break it. Mixing and matching RAM does stress a the controller however.

2400MHz is better than 1600MHz. If I was building a Ryzen system, then I'd want to aim for 3000MHz (O.C) instead of 2400MHz and the PC would work faster. Don't worry about latency like CAS latency when picking RAM, the frequency/speed is the more important factor.

Here is a good post that contains the long computer engineering answer on latency vs clock speed if you feel like reading: http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-1922024/ram-latency-clock-speed.html

As long as you aren't losing/spending money, I would sell and get a 2x8GB kit. If you can't OC to 2400MHz perhaps you can get to 2133MHz or just go down to 1600MHz worst case. At the very least you won't have issues with the dark rock cooler blocking your RAM slots. I don't think you will see big performance gains though, the upgrade would mainly be about convenience.

I could just get G.Skill ram because it's a low profile ram but I might have to spend more which sucks. What do you think? And which mhz is good for gaming & rendering videos?

 

[pharmit_singh]

actually no, i could get from ebay gskill ripjaw rams but it's from overseas that i would save just a little not much. what do you think?

 

[pharmit_singh]

it's mostly 1600mhz only.

 

[jr9]

The low profile kit is a bad idea, it only makes sense if you were doing upgrading to something like 4x8GB low profile and it would cost a fortune. You also don't want to mix and match RAM. Upgrading from regular to low profile is sort of a waste of money when you could just buy a 2x8GB kit.

If it wasn't for the cooler clearance issue I would say no it's not really worth it to upgrade from 1600MHz to 2400MHz. The 2400Mhz is faster on paper but you wouldn't notice a big difference in even in gaming.

With DDR3 anything past 1600MHz is overclocking. 2400MHz isn't 100% guaranteed to be stable even if the RAM is sold as 2400MHz. DDR3 RAM runs at 1333 or 1600MHz naturally by default and that's honestly fine. I have Ripjaws 2x4GB at 1600MHz and I'd never consider upgrading to faster DDR3 RAM. It woudn't give me +10 FPS.

If you actually being blocked by your cooler and cannot use all 4 of your RAM sticks because you are being blocked then sell the 4x4 kit and get a 2x8GB. If you can install 4x4 RAM in there and everything works, leave it and just run 4x4GB and forget about it.